March 21st in History
1918: Offensive on the Somme begins, the last major offensive of World War I
1963: Alcatraz, maximum security prison on the island in San Francisco Bay, closes after 29 years


March 21st birthdays
1685: Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer
1869: Florenz Ziegfield, American impresario
1946: Timothy Dalton, English actor
1963: Matthew Broderick, American actor

March 22nd in History
1945: Arab League formed by seven Middle East countries
1946: Jordan gains independence from British rule


March 22nd birthdays
1599: Sir Anthony Van Dyck, Flemish artist
1910: Nicholas Monsarrat, English author
1923: Marcel Marceau, French Mime artist
1930: Stephen Sondheim, American songwriter
1948: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Composer of 'Phantom of the Opera' and 'Cats'

March 23rd in History
1925: The teaching of Darwins theory of evolution banned in Tennessee schools
1971: Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, proclaims its independence


March 23rd birthdays
1887: Juan Gris, Spanish painter

March 24th in History
1926: The first Safeway's Supermarket opens in Maryland, USA


March 24th birthdays
1887: Fatty Arbuckle, American silent film actor
1930: Steve McQueen, American actor
1947: Alan Sugar, British business Tycoon (Amstrad)

March 25th in History
1306: Robert the Bruce crowned King of the Scots
1807: Slave trade in England abolished by the British Parliament
1925: Greece becomes a republic when King George is deposed
1957: Treaty of Rome signed by six nations, to establish the European Economic Community


March 25th birthdays
1867: Arturo Toscanini, Italian conductor
1908: David Lean, British director

March 26th in History
1981: The British Social Democratic Party is founded by the 'Gang of Four'


March 26th birthdays
1859: A.E Housman, English poet
1886: Chico Marx, American actor
1911: Tennessee Williams, American author
1925: Pierre Boulez, French composer
1940: James Caan, American actor
1944: Diana Ross, American singer

March 27th in History
1794: United States Navy founded
1914: The first successful blood transfusion is performed
1948: Nikita Krushchev becomes the new leader of the Soviet Union


March 27th birthdays
1845: Wilhelm von Rontgen, German discoverer of X-Rays
1863: Sir Henry Royce, The motor car designer of Rolls Royce fame
1897: Gloria Swanson, American actress
1927: Mstislav Rostropovich, Russian cellist and conductor

March 28th in History
1910: Near Marseilles, France, the first ever seaplane takes off
1945: The last V2 German rocket of World War II falls on London
1979: A serious radiation leak occurs at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in the US


March 28th birthdays
1483: Raphael,Italian painter, and architect. Rebuilt St Peters
1660: George I, King of Great Britain
1921: Sir Dirk Bogarde, British actor

March 29th in History
1871: Queen Victoria opens the Royal Albert Hall in London
1974: The American spacecraft Mariner 10 takes the first close-up photographs of Mercury


March 29th birthdays
1790: John Tyler, Former American President
1902: Sir William Walton, English composer
1944: Vangelis, Greek musician

March 30th in History
1842: Ether first used as an anaesthetic during an operation
1867: Alaska purchased from Russia for 7.2 million dollars, by America
1981: US President Ronald Reagan wounded in an assassination attempt


March 30th birthdays
1746: Francisco de Goya, Spanish artist
1820: Anna Sewell, English author of 'Black Beauty'
1853: Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch painter
1880: Sean O'Casey, Irish playwright